UPDATE: Cowen Upgrades Actavis

In a report published Friday, Cowen analyst Anant Padmanabhan upgraded Actavis (NYSE: ACT) to Outperform from Market Perform, raising its price target to $215.00 from $130.00.

According to the report, it is to the analyst's belief that ACT will ultimately merge with Teva, Mylan or Novartis, in industry that is facing significant supplier consolidation. In interim, it is believed that ACT will continue to aggressively consolidate several other complementary businesses and drive value creation to better dictate terms upon their own exit.

“What is obvious to us is that growth through acquisitions will ultimately end - it always does,” the report noted. “However, the positive is that this management team continues to have value creating opportunities in the meantime, and we believe they will execute well to be able to dictate appropriate terms to their own exit when necessary. They have also articulated that there will be no pause in their aggressiveness. We have conviction that management - despite their already significant success - will continue to create as much value between now and their exit as possible, and as urgently as possible.”
ACT closed Thursday at $181.55.